Top 5 European Driving Holidays
Everyone loves a road trip!
Posted in Breakdown on 19 August 2024
Road trips represent complete and total liberty to explore, offering an unadulterated sense of freedom with the entire world at your fingertips (subject to proximity to petrol stations and charging points!)
Not only that, but it can be easy to forget that our home, Europe, presents just as many incredible cities, rural landscapes and natural wonders as places much further afield. That’s why Voyager Insurance have come up with 5 incredible European destinations for a driving holiday, to inspire you for your next European road trip.
1) The German Alpine Road – ‘Alpenstraße'
These high altitude roads take you through the sweeping German Alps of Bavaria.
It offers stunning mountainous scenery, valleys, rolling meadows and glistening lakes, and grants you access to some of Bavaria’s greatest cultural treasures such as Abbey’s, Castles, Ancient Towns and Traditional Food!
This adventure can be tackled in as little as 4 days if you’re on a tight schedule, but with all the incredible scenery and towns to visit along the way, you could enjoy yourself for well over a week on this route.
Starting at Lindau on Lake Constance and finishing at Schönau on Lake Königssee, between these points don’t forget to stop at Füsson, and the Oberjoch Pass – with the highest altitude roads in Germany.
You can visit castles including Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein – Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’s castle, and multiple shimmering lakes, biergartens, and restaurants along the way.
2) Route One – Iceland
Iceland has huge landscape diversity, and this round-the-island road trip will have you bear witness to volcanoes, mountains, lava fields, ash deserts, waterfalls, hot springs, glaciers, fjords and more – if you’re lucky maybe you’ll even catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights.
Route One is an 828 mile ring road around the perimeter of Iceland, connecting most of Iceland’s most built up areas, with stunning scenery all around and in between.
It is recommended you don’t attempt Route One in winter, and take at least 10 days to complete it due to the huge array of attractions to stop at, and to allow time to also explore by foot. If you have even longer, there are multiple half, full or multiple day detours off the route that you can take to see even more, such as the Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon, Westfjords or highlands.
3) The Transfagarasan Highway - Romania
After appearing on a 2009 episode of Top Gear, The Transfagarasan Highway has become a less-than-little-known secret for driving enthusiasts, and one of Romania’s biggest tourist attractions.
And good reason, this 71 mile mountain highway sweeps down mountain landscapes, and is the perfect road for keen drivers, featuring tunnels, bridges, viaducts and dozens of hairpin bends.
Though you can do it in 3 hours, there are many reasons to stop along the way and spend a full day or two exploring
For example, not only may you want to stop to marvel at the mountain scenery, gorges and cliffs, but there are also small rural villages to stop by, castles, ruins and several lakes (most famously Balea Lac) that you can take breaks at or even boat trips in the summer.
Note that much of the route is only fully open from June to October due to adverse weather conditions and treacherous roads.
4) The Netherlands and Belgium
Small and notoriously flat countries, you may think that The Netherlands and Belgium may not be the prime location for a road trip, but think again. With cities close together, you can experience a road trip with optimum time spent visiting a whole host of different locations, rather than spending a larger majority of your time on the road.
For example, Amsterdam to Utrecht is less than a few hours drive, and the same can be said between Rotterdam and The Hague, and between Belgium’s main attractions: Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges.
While this can present a great opportunity to city hop on your own schedule, that’s not to say you have to visit every urban centre at the expense of more rural landscapes. In the Netherlands alone, their rural landscape is decorated with iconic windmills, canals, quaint villages and national parks.
Furthermore, it gives you the flexibility to spend as little or as long as you’d like on this road trip. As the drive time is minimal, its timescale is much more dependent on how many different places you’ve chosen to include and how long you’ll stay at each one!
5) The Atlantic Ocean Road – Norway
This has been referred to as the most beautiful drive in the world, and has also been voted the ‘Norwegian construction of the century’, among other international awards.It connects the mainland and Averøy via a number of tiny islands and is spanned by a total of eight stunning bridges.
There are stopping points along the entire way, for you to take a minute to enjoy the vast coastal views. In the summer, there are also organised fishing trips available from Håholmen and Strømsholmen, if you fancied an activity to break up your trip.
Only 8km long, it’s a perfect day trip and the roads are completely toll free. Why not take the time to check out the Norwegian Trollstigen – another breath-taking Norwegian Road trip, if you fancy extending your grand Norwegian road trip.
Any of these could be the trip of a lifetime, but don’t let it all go to waste! – Remember to get insured with Voyager to Europe European Breakdown Cover. Most standard vehicle breakdown policies will not cover you for breakdowns, recovery or repatriation in/ from mainland Europe, so should something go wrong, it could cost you thousands.
With Voyager European Breakdown Cover you can rest assured knowing that if you have a problem with your vehicle whilst abroad you will receive 24 hour emergency breakdown assistance, from roadside assistance, to being taken to a local repairs garage or even the repatriation of your vehicle to the UK – all starting at just £3 a day.
If you’re planning to hire your vehicle in your destination country, don’t forget to check out Voyager Insurance’s Car Rental Insurance. This could potentially save you thousands if your hire car is damaged or stolen. Not only removing the excess on rental car agreements, it also covers many things that some rental company Super CDW's do not such as personal accident cover, personal belongings cover, rental key cover, breakdown cover and more.
Finally, whatever you do, make sure you arrange your travel insurance as soon as you book your European road trip!
This article is for information purposes only. It does not constitute advice in any way. The information provided here is correct at the time of writing however please check the latest policy wording here for the latest policy terms, conditions and exclusions.
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